


Fixing The Future By Visiting The Past!

by Lionheart39



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:42:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25877623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionheart39/pseuds/Lionheart39
Summary: The Doctor goes back in time to fix a time  anomaly.Set between  Mawdryn Undead and The Five Doctors!
Kudos: 8





	Fixing The Future By Visiting The Past!

The Doctor had arrived at Brendon School looking for his friend, it was the first day of the summer holidays and he found Alistair in the process of repairing the door of the old, rundown, outside classroom he had converted into his home.

“Well Brigadier, I never had you down as a DIY fanatic!”

“The Brigadier who was kneeling on the ground glanced up at the man! Took in his long frock coat with red silk lining, a mass of untidy white hair and a white shirt, at least this one didn’t have ruffles, and knew who his visitor was. The face was much older then the last time he had seen it, much more like his old friend who had been exiled to Earth. But the biggest clue to who the man was were the eyes. Those eyes had seen too many things. 

“Doctor, excellent timing! Just hold on to that door and don't move it while I get the screws in!”

“Good to know I can still turn up in the nick of time to rescue you!” 

He heard his old friend laugh.

“So you recognised me?” the Doctor said frowning

“Who else would it be?” he asked smiling. “What regeneration is this one Doctor?”

“Twelfth!” the Doctor said a slightly unsure look on his face.

Alistair looked worried, “Twelfth, I thought your people could only...” he decided he didn't need to know that. “Been a bit of a jump the last one of you I saw was the Fifth, that was only about seven years ago!”

The Doctor winced, seven years. He really shouldn't have left it so long between revisits, Alistair deserved much better treatment. His younger selves really needed a talking to!

“Oh, you'll be meeting more of me,” the Doctor said smiling. “It's just the TARDIS reminded me of a time anomaly that needed fixing, so I'm here to sort it out!”

Alistair chuckled as the Doctor leaned over his shoulder and used his sonic screwdriver to quickly tighten the screws into the new hinge.

“So that thing was actually a screwdriver, that’s the first time I've ever seen you use it as one!” he said.

Pushing the door closed and opening it he smiled. “Been meaning to do that for years. Thought I'd get it done before I leave!”

“Yes I'd heard you were retiring again!” the Doctor said.

“So what is the plan this time?”

Alistair just shrugged! “This and that!”

The Doctor looked at his friend closely, “I thought you must have had some special reason for leaving. I thought you'd stick it out until you were 65. That’s the retirement age in this country, at this time isn’t it?”

The Brigadier nodded.

“That was the plan, but, we have a new Head Master, a new broom, taking over, Doctor! And I’ve just gotten a little too old for this game. The CCF isn't going to run after this year, the bursar’s job is being taken over by a 16 year old using some smart computer program and the Maths department is over staffed!”

He looked around the grounds of the school and sighed deeply.

“It was a choice between young Welham and myself! Welham is 34 years old, he’s got a wife and daughter to think about, he needs the job, needs the money!”

The Doctor could see the intense sadness in his friend.

“It was never about money for me, I have a very good army pension, a bit of a private income and now a teachers pension as well! This job was about...”

He gave the Doctor a strained smile, then tried to look cheerful!

“It was about being useful!”

The Doctor nodded and smiled at his friend. He knew the truth, this job had been about filling in his lonely life! Alistair had been in the Army for most of his working life! He'd had an extraordinary career, saved this miserable little planet countless times. In the process of saving the world he had lost his family and was just left with unrelenting work. Until he had fallen foul of the internal politics of the Army and the UN.

The Doctor had remembered his conversation with his old friend so many years ago when he had first discovered him teaching at the school, instead of working for UNIT!

‘I could have retired lived on my pension, grown cabbages and been dead of boredom in a year!’

“Do you fancy a drink?” the Doctor asked smiling.

The Brigadier looked at his watch, “Yes, the Red Lion will just have opened, they do a nice pint and I'm sure they will have a glass of burgundy you would appreciate!”

As the two old friends settled down in the beer garden the Doctor asked, “Seen anything of your daughter, Kate, recently?” 

Alistair shook his head sadly.

“No, can't blame her, Fiona ... well. You know! Anyway she's got her own life, haven't really seen her since she was eight and her mother remarried! She'll be nearly twenty three now! Probably calling the other man.. Dad!”

The Doctor winced at the pain in his old friends eyes!

The Doctor looked at the watch his old friend wore, he remembered Professor Clegg and the ESP experiment!

“Ever heard from Doris, I remember you two got back together for a while, what happened there? I never found out why you two split up again!”

“Another drink Doctor?” Alistair asked.

The Doctor smiled, “My round I think!” he said picking up the glasses.

For the next couple of rounds they discuss the cricket, and then past friends. After several more rounds the Doctor brought the conversation back around to Doris! 

“You never told me about you and Doris, you two went back a fair way I understand!”

The Brigadier looked at his watch fondly. The Doctor knew it had been a gift from Doris.

“Most beautiful woman I ever knew,” Alistair said with a sad smile. We lost touch when I got posted to Korea. I ended up a prisoner. I was posted as M.I.A., presumed dead!” That memory seemed to hurt the old soldier. “But life goes on and Doris found someone else. She was married to her new man before I got back! One of those things. Can't blame her!” 

“I met Fiona a few years later, we got married, and had Kate! I thought that I was set for life, a beautiful wife and daughter, what more could a man ask for!” the old soldier said smiling fondly at the memory of happier times. “But then the London Event happened, and life was never the same!”

He took another long pull on his pint.

“Doris?” the Doctor reminded him!

“Arr yes, Doris! Her husband died, Northern Ireland, he was a Captain in the Ordinance Corps, bomb disposal!”

He shook his head! 

“It affected Doris badly!” 

The Doctor watched his old friend closely. 

“Doris and I met up again a couple of years later! She was having a spot of bother with her army pension! She heard I was in the pension section!”

The Doctor and Alistair shared a grin, pensions had been UNITs cover. 

“She came to me to see if I could help! I got Corporal Bell to sort it out and...”

He looked at the Doctor and smiled sadly. “Well we were both a bit lonely and things were going well, but Doris thought I was in a safe job. She kept saying how glad she was I wasn't doing anything dangerous, and all the time I was lying to her.”

He took a large swallow of his drink.

“You know how dangerous UNIT was, Doctor. If I'd got killed after lying to Doris like that I mean, it would have hurt her dreadfully! So I just gradually stopped seeing her and hoped she'd find some nice safe man, who would love her without the need of lying to her!”

“I was going to get back in touch with her in 1977, but as you know things went astray! Then when I sorted myself out, well it had been just too long!”

The Doctor helped his friend to his feet. “Come on you need to get back home!”

“So are you going to be setting off on your travels again Doctor?”

The Doctor smiled, “Could I tempt you in to joining me?” he asked hopefully.

“I think I'm getting a bit too old for those sorts of adventures!”

“Old, you haven't even got to your 61st Birthday! I'm nearly 2000 years old!”

Alistair grinned, “No thanks Doctor, I think I'd rather travel through time one day after the next!”

They got back to the school.

“So you'll be off then!” the Brigadier said sadly.

The Doctor shook his head. “Got a few things to do, then I'll be back! See you in a few days! You will be here won't you?”

“Yes I'm stopping until results day. That's about a month away!”

“Right see you next week then!”

The old soldier raised his hand then walked unsteadily into his home!

The Doctor frowned, he needed to get things sorted out for the Brigadier. That mess in 1977 had been his fault, in fact most of what had gone wrong for the Brigadier had been his fault! He thought about his old friend, he was always putting other people before himself and he never really complained when life gave him back nothing but grief in return. 

The Doctor looked at the petite lady trying to lift a large decorative pot into the back of her old bright red estate car, in the garden centre car park. He had been watching her for several days now. Her life seemed to revolve around, proof reading text books, taking her dog for long walks and taking care of her large garden. He had monitored her phone calls and made discreet enquiries, and now knew everything there was to know about Doris Wilson. The most important thing he had found out was that she wasn't emotionally attached to anyone else.

“Can I give you a hand with that?” he said smiling.

“Thank you that would be a great help! I hadn’t realised how heavy it was!”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes as he looked at her, “Haven't we met before?” he asked.

Doris shook her head “I don’t think so!”

“Yes, yes I'm sure we have! 1975, you were with Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, when we last met!”

Doris looked surprised.

“That was a long time ago!” she said a little sadly.

The Doctor smiled “Are you two still in touch?” he asked.

Doris shook her head, “No things didn't work out! We just lost contact at the beginning of 1976!”

“Mmm,” the Doctor said, “that would have been about the time he was on that hush, hush mission!”

“Hush, hush, mission,” Doris laughed. “Alistair, was in army pensions!” she said looking at the Doctor disbelievingly.

“Yes, well, they needed a man with his skills and abilities to sort out a very dangerous situation! He was always a very good soldier that's why he was chosen for the mission! I believe he got the Military Cross for his work in uncovering a conspiracy to take over the country!”

The Doctor nodded his head and gave Doris a pained smile.

“A very brave man, old Lethbridge-Stewart, not many men would give up everything to protect their country and of course he couldn't tell anyone what he was doing. It would have put anyone he told in danger, as well as jeopardizing himself! He didn't come out of it too well though!” the Doctor said sadly shaking his head. 

“What, happened to him?” Doris asked anxiously.

The Doctor looked at her surprised, “No one told you?”

Doris shook her head, “No, well, the army wouldn't I wasn't next of kin!” She swallowed hard, “He wasn't....”

The Doctor grabbed her arm, “No, no nothing like that! My dear lady, I'm so sorry, I honestly thought you knew! It was a long and dangerous assignment by the end of it he was seriously stressed. He had to leave the army soon afterwards. A few months after that he had a serious breakdown. He wasn't himself for quite a few years!”

Doris looked amazed, then alarmed! 

“He left the army?”

“Yes, he went to work at a boys school running the Combined Cadet Force! He managed to do the job even though he was pretty badly messed up! I hear he's back to near normal again now, but life has been rough for him!”

“Have you got time for a coffee?” Doris asked.

The Doctor smiled.

“Certainly, but I insist on paying!”

They sat at a window table and Doris watched the strange man spooning six sugars into his cup, he stirred it, then tasted it, grimaced and spooned in two more heaped teaspoons! Then ate his complimentary biscuit. He eyed Doris’s biscuit hopefully, she nodded, he flashed her a smile as he helped himself to it.

“So, Alistair, went on a undercover mission, in 1976! That's when we lost touch, I thought he'd found someone else!“

“No, as far as I know he's been unattached since that time. It took him six or seven years to get back to normal. Been working at that school ever since. Heard he was due to retire soon. That will be a big upheaval for him.” 

“So has he got anyone?” Doris asked.

The Doctor shook his head.

She sat looking thoughtful for a long time. Before she asked her next question!

“Which school is he working at?”

The Doctor filled Doris in about Alistair’s location. 

He asked about how she would get the pot out of the car at home.

“I have a neighbour's son who cuts the grass, I'm sure he’ll help me! Err thank you for the coffee Mr ...”

“Smith!” the Doctor said smiling.

The TARDIS materialised back at the school, the Doctor stepped out to find his old friend sitting on the step of his home listening to the latest test match commentary.

They chatted for a long time as they shared a pitcher of Pimms.

“So did you get your time anomaly sorted?” the Brigadier asked!

The Doctor glanced up seeing an old bright red estate car stop outside the school office. He saw Doris Wilson getting out and going into the reception area. A young woman came out with her and pointed over towards the Brigadier’s home.  
”Yes, all sorted now. We'll it's been a pleasure Alistair, I've got to get off!”

Alistair looked up a little surprise at how quickly the Doctor left. He heard the TARDIS setting off and shook his head! Just like the Doctor, always restless always wanting to move on to another adventure! He sighed and felt even more lonely!

A soft voice from behind him said “Err, Alistair?”

He turned around, his eyes opened widely in disbelief. Then he smiled.

“Doris, how wonderful to see you!” he said stepping forward and receiving a kiss on the cheek!


End file.
